Many airports have passenger bridges which are connected to an airplane from a terminal building and through which passengers walk to and from the airplane. There are several different types of such passenger bridges, of which one type is a so called Mobile Telescopic Bridge (MTB), which consists of a number of telescopic parts, where the outermost part is supported by a bogie with separately driven wheels. Using this bogie, the passenger bridge is maneuvered on the airport apron tarmac to and from an airplane. At the connection of the passenger bridge to a terminal building, there is a rotunda which can be turned about a vertical axis and which is supported by a pillar which is firmly established in the ground. In the outermost part of the passenger bridge, there is a cabin which can be turned relative to the outermost telescopic element of the passenger bridge. The cabin is the part which is arranged to be connected to the door of an airplane.
Another type is a fixedly mounted bridge with an outer telescopable part, which is connected to the said cabin, and an inner part which is connected to a fixed support.
When docking of an airplane to a passenger bridge, it is known to touchlessly measure the distance from a docking system, comprising a distance measurement device, to the airplane. Usually, the docking system is mounted on a terminal building. Furthermore, it is known to indicate to the pilot the position of the airplane in relation to the central line along which the airplane is to move towards a stop point, where said cabin is to be connected to the airplane door. These devices are located in a device belonging to the docking system and which is provided with a display.
The display is positioned a certain distance up on the wall of the terminal building, in the extension of the central line, or on an independent construction.
The distance measurement is used in order to indicate the said stop point to the pilot. The stop point may be individual for different airplanes, and can thus lie at various distances from the distance measuring device used. Such a docking system is presumed to know what type and version of airplane which is to dock, and thereby the distance between the distance measuring device and a specific part of the airplane, among other things in order to avoid accidents because of for instance one of the wings of the airplane colliding into the passenger bridge in question or into any other object, as a result of the location of the stop point being indicated as too close to, for example, the terminal building. Namely, the positioning of for instance the wings can differ across various versions of a certain type of airplane.
The technology which nowadays is most often used to measure the distance is distance measuring lasers.
A very common way to indicate to the pilot the location of the airplane in relation to the central line is that the display is provided with a leading mark indicator according to Swedish patent no. 8105509-7.
After the airplane has stopped in its stop position, the cabin of the passenger bridge is to be connected to the airplane door.
In the Swedish patent no. 503 396, a way to automatically connect a passenger bridge to an airplane is described.
In case the connection is to take place completely automatically, and to be correct, the type and version of the airplane must be established. The placement of the doors along the airplane body may vary across different versions of airplanes of the same type.
Data relating to the type and version of the airplane, input into a supervisory or central computer system, are normally presumed to be correct. However, experience proves that such data in a central computer system, for example the data system FIDS (Flight Information and Display System) and/or in a local computer system, for example Apron Management System, which is used to assign arriving airplanes a stand in which it is to be parked, is not always correct.
In some cases, airplane type and version are indicated locally without connection to supervisory systems, why a risk of incorrect input of data is present.
The present invention solves both the above described problems.